And they never forget to remind me, “You could’ve been an AS major!”

On Sunday, December 12, I went flying in a Cessna for the first time since I switched out of aeronautical science.

It’s a common occurrence here at Embry-Riddle. We have a lot of Aeronautical Science, or AS, majors, and a lot of non-AS students also have at least a private pilot’s license. ERAU’s aircraft are reserved for AS students, so students resort to external aircraft. There are several flight schools that operate out of Daytona’s airport, so it’s common for people to rent aircraft or get their private pilot’s license at one of those schools.

And two of my best friends just happen to be pilots! Chris is a junior in AS, and he’s currently finishing up his commercial certificate. Jack is a freshman in Aviation Business Administration, and he has a private pilot’s license. I, on the other hand, haven’t done any flight training except the eight modules I completed through Embry-Riddle as an AS major.

Jack had reserved a plane through Air America from 12 to 3 PM since it is finals week and we didn’t want to be away from our studies for too long. The three of us decided that we wanted to go to DeLand and get lunch at the little restaurant for our little outing.

It was a really short ride, but fun nonetheless. Since there wasn’t too much for me to do besides take pictures in the backseat, I ended up reading and reviewing for the final exam I had tomorrow. DeLand’s restaurant was nice, and it was quite busy on a Sunday afternoon. I also noticed that there was a surprising amount of aircraft there, including complex aircraft.

DeLand’s airport is also home to Skydive DeLand, and as we were heading back to Daytona Beach, we saw one of their aircraft take off. It wasn’t the only large aircraft I’d seen that day, though. When we left, we saw the 12:45 PM Delta Air Lines waiting on the taxiway. I ended up looking behind us a few minutes later and watched it take off over the beach, soaring into the clouds.

I was also able to get the classic bird’s-eye-view picture over Embry-Riddle, which reminded me just how beautiful our campus is. Going flying is definitely something unique to ERAU- not every school has plenty of pilots. Not every university has flight schools and an airport nearby. It’s definitely something that sets ERAU apart from every other university, and it’s something I wouldn’t trade for the world. I’ll see you in the next post… and hopefully at Riddle!